The present disclosure relates generally to medical devices, and, more particularly, to a physiological monitor having research capabilities.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the field of healthcare, caregivers (e.g., doctors and other healthcare professionals) often desire to monitor certain physiological characteristics of their patients. Accordingly, a wide variety of monitoring devices have been developed for monitoring many such physiological characteristics. These monitoring devices often provide doctors and other healthcare personnel with information that facilitates provision of the best possible healthcare for their patients. As a result, such monitoring devices have become a perennial feature of modern medicine.
One technique for monitoring physiological characteristics of a patient is commonly referred to as pulse oximetry, and the devices built based upon pulse oximetry techniques are commonly referred to as pulse oximeters. Pulse oximeters may be used to measure and monitor various blood flow characteristics of a patient. For example, a pulse oximeter may be utilized to monitor the blood oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in arterial blood, the volume of individual blood pulsations supplying the tissue, and/or the rate of blood pulsations corresponding to each heartbeat of a patient.
In practice, a pulse oximeter may be employed to provide a running assessment of a patient's physiological signs, such as pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation, and to indicate when one ort more of the monitored characteristics crosses an alarm or threshold value. However, in addition to this monitoring function, a pulse oximeter may also store the measured physiological data as it is collected over time. A pulse oximeter may allow some limited functionality in reviewing the measured data, such as displaying a historical trendline or waveform representing a measured physiological characteristic, but such review capabilities typically do not provide for meaningful analysis of the collected data. Instead, to the extent the collected physiological data is to be analyzed, the data may be exported to an external device, such as a computer or workstation, for analysis. The process of exporting data, however, may be complicated and/or time consuming and may remove the pulse oximeter from its principal monitoring duties. Further, the analysis of the collected data may utilize equipment and/or tools that are costly and/or not readily available.